The forum will address signs of a possible impending attack against
Iran; why the Bush administration has developed these plans; why such
plans are illegal under international law; and how these aims fit into
the broader context of US policy in the Mid-East as developed by the
Project for a New American Century in the late
1990’s. Speakers will also address the issues of peak oil and nuclear
nonproliferation, followed by a question-and-answer period.

OMJP Meeting 4/13/05—At the February Support the Truth event, Scott Ritter said that the
Bush administration is planning to attack Iran in June. Despite the fact
that the corporate press is not covering this issue, there are indications
that an attack could happen. Israel PM Ariel Sharon has also said that June
is the "point of no return". The US and Israel state that Iran wants to
develop a nuclear bomb. Iran has said its uranium enrichment activities are
allowed under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. If Iran is in fact
developing a bomb, it's probably in response to the 100-200 nuclear warheads
that Israel has and the thousands of nukes that the US has. Sadly, many
countries see acquiring a nuclear bomb as a "logical response" to the
military threat posed by the US and other nuclear states.

However the nuclear issue is probably a smokescreen for the real issue: the
huge oil and natural gas reserves that Iran has, and the fact that it is
selling oil and gas to China and India, competitors of the US. US sanctions
prevent US companies from doing business with Iran. The Bush administration
would therefore like to either 1) extend these sanctions to all foreign
companies through the UN, which would not be possible because of China's
veto; or 2) achieve "regime change" in Iran so that a government more
friendly to US interests would come in to power.

John Bolton is the person who has called for a "robust" military attack on
Iran if it doesn't stop its uranium enrichment. Some analysts think Bolton
was nominated for UN Ambassador to help enable a US attack on
Iran. Defeating Bolton's nomination is one way to prevent an attack.—Alice Zillah

Michael T. Klare is professor of peace and world security studies at
Hampshire College and the author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and
Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Oil (Metropolitan
Books).

An OMJP sub-group developed a half page informational leaflet, text
below. The leaflets are available at Media Island International at 816
Adams St, across from the downtown Olympia library, on the front porch
to the left under "Event Information."

IS IRAN THE NEXT TARGET IN THE ADMINISTRATION’S SIGHTS?

On Feb. 18, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told an Olympia
audience that the Bush administration has plans to attack Iran in June
of 2005. “The Pentagon was told to be prepared to launch a massive
aerial attack against Iran, Iraq's neighbor to the east, in order to
destroy the Iranian nuclear program.”

There are other indications: In late March three warships with 6,300
sailors and Marines were deployed to the Persian Gulf. Bush has
repeatedly said publicly that “all options are on the table” in regards
to Iran. Commentator Charles Goyette says, “That the US might attack
Iran in June is one of our worst-kept secrets.”

The Bush administration is saying the same things about Iran that they
said about Iraq: it has a secret weapons program, ties to Al Qaeda, and
represents a threat to the US. But last month an official US
Presidential Commission stated that virtually every report on Iraq from
the intelligence community was “dead wrong.” These dead wrong reports
were used to justify a war that has resulted in the deaths of over 1560
Americans and 100,000 Iraqis. Americans have spent over $200 billion on
this war and there is no end in sight.

No More Excuses for War!

Now is the time to act. Call your congressperson and ask them to
vocally oppose an attack on Iran, and to support the Woolsey resolution
calling for the troops to be brought home from Iraq.